Two Thumbs Up

If you ever happen be at a thrift store agonizing over whether or not you should spent 99 cents on a VHS copy of 1988's educational film 'The Living Body,' do your self a favor and bring the tape and $1.06 to the cash register.

Thanks to Ms. Gannon and her need for a day off, I have a new favorite educational film. The Living Body has it all. It opens with a four minute long musical montage of the human body in action. This is what LIVING looked like in 1988. Taut, tanned bodies running and jumping, dancing and skiing, stretching and flexing, a ripped old guy slalom water skiing, a rally car driver shredding down a one lane country road. There is slow motion and close ups on ripling muscles, there are short shorts and two piece swimming suits. In short the living body is sexy, and thats just the montage.

Then the Counsel on Science and The Humanities takes us inside the body. Have you ever seen the inside of an intestine? Yeah? So have I. But, if you had seen The Living Body when it first came out in 88 it would have blown your mind. How about the inside of a lung, or an ear? You get to see both in this educational film. What I learned from the tiny camera on the end of stick shots is that inside we are mostly pink and slimey.

Once we've seen what we look like on the inside, The Living Body takes us where many eduacational films fear to tread. The reproductive system. I don't want to give everything away, but how does a psychadelic light display projected onto the body of naked pregnant woman sound? I thought so.

When Ms. Gannon comes back to school on Monday I'm going to ask her if I can dub a copy. Mr. Awesome needs a copy for his library.